Fate of the Alpha: The Complete Bundle Read Online Free PDF Page A

He loved the earnest way she studied the energy, but was concerned at the way she still looked at it like it was something foreign to her. As though he had just handed her a newborn and she was afraid to drop it.
    “Now, I want you to knock that bottle over with it.”
    The moment her eyes went to the stump the light dimmed slightly.
    “How?”
    “Project it.”
    “What do you mean?”
    “Envision it and compel it.”
    Julian lifted his own hand. A kernel of blue light curled into his open palm almost before he consciously evoked it.
    Gazing at Ainsley to make sure he had her attention, he willed it to the stump.
    It sailed across the grass and pinged against the bottle delicately, knocking it neatly into the pumpkin patch.
    “Wow.”
    Julian grinned and jogged over to retrieve it.
    “Your turn.”
    Ainsley closed her eyes and drew in a careful breath. She opened her eyes and exhaled, concentrating on the stump.
    The blue light in her hands hopped and spluttered out.
    “Fuck.”
    “Calmly, Ainsley. Again.”
    She pursed her lips, and took in another steady breath.
    But this time the light between her palms was thin and reedy.
    “Release your emotions. Breathe.”
    A fraction of the tension left her face.
    Immediately, the energy swelled.
    “Now look at the bottle.”
    This time when she looked up, the energy continued to flow merrily between her palms.
    “Brilliant! Now project.”
    He watched proudly as her light sprung gamely toward the bottle.
    It wasn’t enough to knock the bottle over, but it did manage to wiggle it slightly before faltering and flickering out.
    “Ainsley, well done!”
    She turned to him with fire in her eyes.
    “That wasn’t well done. I’m not good at this. My pack needs me, and there aren’t enough hours in the day as it is. I don’t know why I’m here.”
    He knew he should tell her more about the nature of the magic she would be facing, but he feared the truth would do more harm than good. She could barely concentrate as it was. If she knew how powerful her enemies really were, she might freeze up completely.
    That wouldn’t do at all.
    “You need this, Ainsley. And you will be good at it. Have you been meditating like we discussed?”
    “I don’t have time to meditate,” she said, obviously exasperated. “Every minute of my day is scheduled.”
    “Then schedule time for meditation,” he suggested. “If you won’t meditate, you’ll have to pay it forward some other way. Give up sugar and caffeine, give up… mating, sacrifice something, or the magic won’t always work. And when it does work, it will take something from you and you won’t get to choose what.”
    “Are you seriously telling me not to have sex?”
    Her eyes blazed and her dark hair danced wildly in the breeze. Regretfully, Julian noticed that she had probably never looked more desirable. On the other hand, she had become so wild. There was no trace of the glorious restraint that had drawn him to her before. A disappointment. But he supposed the poet was right, Nothing gold can stay.
    “No, I’m asking you to meditate,” he said wearily.
    “I’m a wolf , Julian. I beat out the biggest wolf the town had to offer. What’s coming that’s so bad I can’t handle without learning more magic?”
    He tried to dodge her question.
    “Being a wolf isn’t enough when you’re up against the kind of magic in your father’s book, Ainsley. You know that already. Remember when I stopped you from shifting?”
    “Remember when I blasted your ass out the window two seconds later?”
    Julian remembered all too well. She’d caught him snooping in her father’s study. He thought she was going to tear him to pieces, so he flung a spell designed to temporarily halt her transformation. Somehow, she had managed to send the energy back to him. His pride was the worst injury sustained in the two-story trip out the window and into Ainsley’s rhododendrons.
    He still wasn’t sure how she’d managed something like